With no plan in place to move city elections, Redondo Beach plans to file a lawsuit in coming weeks challenging a state law designed to boost voter turnout.

Cities, school boards and special districts with dismal turnout have until Monday to come up with a game plan to align their local elections with statewide primaries and general elections, which have much higher participation, by November 2022.

Redondo Beach didn’t meet the deadline because the politically divided City Council couldn’t agree on how to make the move.

But the panel did agree unanimously in closed session at its Dec. 19 meeting to challenge SB 415.

Only South Bay city without a plan

The beach town is the only South Bay city that did not adopt a plan to sync its elections with the state’s.

While some municipalities opted to lengthen the terms of sitting officials to make the switch, others altered future terms.

Redondo Beach is one of a handful of cities in Los Angeles County that haven’t submitted plans to the county Registrar-Recorder’s Office, according to spokesman Mike Sanchez. The risk of failing of meet the deadline is exposure to a legal challenge.

“The likely source of complaint — legal or otherwise — would be from the constituents of each local jurisdiction,” Sanchez said in an email.

In its legal challenge, Redondo Beach will seek to maintain the status quo of holding elections in March of odd-numbered years.

Voters must approve amendments to the city charter, which governs elections for the city and school board.

Redondo Beach didn’t get around to considering moving its elections until the end of the year because it was waiting on clarification from Attorney General Xavier Becerra on whether or not SB 415 applies to charter cities, as well as general-law cities.

Potential lower turnout

Redondo Beach City Attorney Mike Webb disagrees.

“We don’t think the state has the right under the state constitution to take over control of local elections in this manner,” he said. “And in our case, we think there’s actually a chance that voter participation would go down because, in some instances, our voter turnout has been higher than it has been in state primaries.”

In 2014, for example, 22.2 percent of registered voters turned out for the statewide primary, while the 2015 Redondo Beach election had 29 percent.

In 2012, 28.5 percent of the electorate turned out for the statewide primary, then the 2013 Redondo Beach election saw 29.7 percent turnout.

Redondo Beach is one of three charter cities in the South Bay.

Torrance did not need to move its elections because the city already holds them in June of even-numbered years. Inglewood leaders simply passed a resolution laying out a plan to ask voters to amend the city charter to move its elections, but the ballot measure language is to be determined.

That’s what Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand proposed at a last-minute meeting Dec. 20, which was canceled due to lack of quorum because council members Laura Emdee, John Gran and Christian Horvath — who was traveling — did not attend.

“It’s a shame and totally unnecessary for Redondo Beach to be blowing the deadline to put forth a plan to align our elections with those of the state per SB 415,” Brand said at the meeting, which he called a “last-ditch effort” to get a plan in place.

The council had already voted in closed session to pursue a legal challenge.

Emdee, Gran and Horvath voted last month to propose extending everyone’s terms by one year, arguing it would save the city money.

Brand vetoed the 3-2 decision, saying term extensions are “undemocratic.”

An alternative from his allies on the council to shorten future terms failed to win support.

Megan Barnes covers crime and public safety for the Press-Telegram. She was previously a city reporter at the Daily Breeze, where she covered the South Bay beach cities and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Before that, she was a freelancer writing about LGBT news and her hometown of San Pedro, where she probably made your latte at Starbucks. She loves iced Americanos and Radiohead and finally got to see them live on the A Moon Shaped Pool tour. It was magical.